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Top 10 SEO Tactics for Gaining Top Results in 2018

Predicting where SEO tactics and techniques are headed is tricky business.

That’s why if you want your blog or website to maintain strong Google rankings, you’ve got to be certain you’re taking advantage of the latest tools that are available.

These SEO techniques are ones that businesses now use to generate thousands of unique visitors each month.

Getting left behind isn’t an option, particularly when you consider these tactics are being used by your competitors. If they’re getting results, it’s time you got in the game as well.

If you’re ready to start working smarter and faster when it comes to SEO, read on.

The Top 10 SEO Tactics for 2018

If you’re not sure how to effectively use SEO tactics to boost your Google search results, there’s a lot of smart tools out there waiting to be discovered for the best SEO techniques.

Consider this a roadmap on how to take advantage of the SEO tactics and strategies that already exist. Keep in mind that a lot of these tools are available to you for free.

Remember, on page SEO tactics are an exciting tool that continue to evolve. it’s crucial to know the latest SEO techniques for 2018, and not get caught up in methods that no one is using anymore.

If you’re nervous about investing time and money into this field, relax, and keep reading. Focus on these advanced SEO tactics, because for quite a few other businesses, they’re working just fine.

Think of it this way: advanced content and social tactics to optimize SEO is a bit like repair work – you need the right tools to get the job done.

Fortunately, there are plenty of great free tools out there.

Search engine optimization isn’t one single task or strategy you implement to boost your website to the top of search engine rankings. An effective optimization plan combines a variety of best practices for SEO that come together to help websites gain authority in SERPs. If you want to increase your website’s rankings, help more people find your brand through search, and grow your digital authority, you should use as many best practices for SEO as possible. — Kim Kosaka, Alexa.

1. Find out how you’re ranking on Google

A key to effective SEO techniques and SEO methods is to make sure the people using Google for searches are happy. If you’re able to make Google’s users happy, you’re going to rank higher.

Google has called RankBrain the third most important factor in the ranking algorithm, along with links and content.

RankBrain measures how you interact with the results on the first page, so you want to optimize your site for Google RankBrain.

You can start by improving your organic click-through-rate so Google RankBrain can see that plenty of people are clicking on your site in the search results.

Google will interpret those results to indicate that viewers love your site and boost it to the top of the page so it’s going to be easier for them to find.

And another way to get more clicks: add a number to your headline. Research shows that people are more likely to click on content with a number in the title.

“As SEO becomes less of a black box for companies, the more they will invest year to year, which increases its importance in the marketing space and legitimizes it as a viable, ROI-driving channel. Year after year we have seen Google improving its algorithm and pushing site owners to the point of insanity in the name of the practice, and this year they will continue to push, often in new directions that previously didn’t have anything to do with SEO.” — Patrick Reinhart, Search Engine Journal

2. Focus on Maintaining Strong Content

Every piece of advanced content you post is an opportunity to rank in search engine optimization strategies. Quality content is the top factor driving search engine marketing techniques, and one of the most essential factors in SEO techniques for websites.

What kind of content? Try:

Well written articles that are at least 1,000 words or longer, well researched, educational and informative.

Videos, which have also shown to do very well in search engines.

The importance of quality content is that it ensures users have a strong, positive experience while visiting your site.

If you want to please Google and get a good ranking, be sure your users get a memorable experience every time they visit your site.

3. Use of Videos in Blogs

Not only can videos become great content, but keep in mind that YouTube videos are dominating Google search results.

And a great way to ensure your videos rank high is in your video description.

Normally, when someone uploads a video to YouTube, they either ignore the description box or just write a few words about it.

What you want to be doing instead is writing a longer description, at least several hundred words long. Since Google can’t watch your video content, they rely on your description to determine what it’s about.

And if that description contains your SEO keywords, that little bit of extra content is going to make a significant difference.

4. Use of Images

Chances are you’re already using images in your social media posts; be sure to add an image to every article you post.

Images can help you generate traffic from image-based search engines like Google Images.

The key here is you want to optimize your images to assist the search engine spiders. You want to help those spiders understand what your images are about through the image alt text – which, essentially, is the text that the search engine uses to understand the image you posted.

When you first post the image, you’re asked to provide the title, caption, description – and Alt Text. If you put in a description that Google understands, your images will perform better in searches.

5. Improve your site load speed

We know a slow loading site is one of the quickest ways to lose viewers. Nobody’s going to wait if it takes too long for your site to come up, and your bounce rate will soar.

That tells Google people don’t like your site and they’re not going to rank you high.

You need to be sure your site opens quickly across all devices. Google PageSpeed is a good tool for learning insights about why your site might be slow.

You also want to be sure you have a quality hosting site. It makes a big difference.

The bottom line is that Google wants users to have a good experience, and that means websites providing a good user experience will rank better than the ones that don’t.

6. Building backlinks

You want to be building inbound and outbound links to your blogs, particularly with relevant industry related sites. You want to spend some time on internal links, which can help your viewers as they navigate the site, bringing them to other relevant pages.

An important Google algorithm update is Hilltop, an on-page SEO signal that tells Google if a page is a “hub” of information, determined by the quality and relevance of the page’s outbound links, particularly ones that are helpful resources.

That’s considered to be a higher-quality “hub” page than one that only links to other pages or blogs on your website.

So you want to link to no fewer than three quality, relevant resources in every piece of content you publish.

7. Updating older blogs that rank well

If you have something interesting to share with your readers, it may not be necessary to write a brand-new blog. Add that information to an existing blog – and be sure it’s one doing well in rankings.

Taking an old post and updating it with fresh images and information instantly creates a new and improved version of the post. Google favors sites that are updated regularly with useful content.

And again, it doesn’t need to be text-based. Interesting new videos and images also work well to connect with your target audience members.

This will also help improve your bounce rates, which the search engines will notice.

“Did you know that you can actually gain more traffic with the content you have already written than by writing new content? If you’ve been blogging for a while and have an archive of old posts saved up, you are practically sitting on a gold mine of potential traffic. All it would take for you to dramatically increase your page views is reviving that old content and giving it new life.” — Make Traffic Happen

8. Keyword research

As the search queries that people type into Google, keywords are the starting point for all aspects of SEO, so you want to be certain you optimize your site around terms that people are searching for.

Spend some time trying to determine what keywords your customers are looking for.

One effective way to find keywords to optimize your content around is to find the exact keywords your competitors already rank for. Find a competing site that ranks well in Google and put the homepage into a site like SEMRush, which will give you a list of keywords they already rank for.

You can also use a tool like Google Keyword Planner to research words that your competitors may not be aware of. Keyword Planner will give you close variations of your main keywords.

9. Interview specialists in the field

And approach them with a set of crystal clear questions that can tap into their knowledge and marketing expertise.

Four great questions to ask an SEO marketing specialist are:

Do they have great SEO case studies that you can read and learn from, which include the URL’s of the best sites they optimized, what tasks they contributed to it, and what the final results were.

Do they mind checking out your website and offering some onsite optimization recommendations to improve it.

What keywords do they think your site should be going after.

How do they stay on top of the most current SEO trends?

10. Use WordPress Plug-Ins

If your site is on the popular hosting system WordPress, they have plug ins available to help boost your search engine optimization.

The most effective is Yoast SEO, which can help you reach for the number one spot in the search results by ranking the effectiveness of your optimization.

Yoast SEO actually provides both content and SEO analysis, and let’s you know what’s lacking in both — and how to correct them. There is also a Yoast SEO Premium with extra features, including having multiple focus keywords, suggestions for internal linking, and a redirect manager.

“When you’re working with a self-hosted WordPress site, the Yoast SEO plugin is one of the most valuable tools you can have. Yoast SEO is one of the most widely popular WordPress plugins around and it’s easy to understand why. Whether you’re running a personal blog or you’re a SEO professional managing a website for a client, Yoast is a powerful tool that can help you make your site as search engine-friendly as possible.” — Angela Petteys, Moz

Conclusion

The great news about search engine optimization strategies today is that a lot of the most effective tools for ranking high in search engines – the ones we know are working wonders for some businesses – are free.

Who doesn’t think free is totally awesome?

And in the SEO world, there are plenty of great free tools to take advantage of, from Google Analytics and the data it provides you about site visitors, traffic, etc., to Google Webmaster Tools, which is you can use to diagnose site errors and index issues.

What’s important is to educate yourself about the tools that are already out there, to start testing them, and then to focus on the next step: making money for your business.

You can also contact a firm like Chatter Buzz and learn more about how we use SEO tactics to boost digital marketing. Based in Orlando, Chatter Buzz also has offices in Tampa and New York.

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Michael Freeman

Michael is the Content Writer and Editor at Chatter Buzz. A native of Massachusetts, he has more than 20 years of experience as a print and online journalist & has as a marketing writer for more than 50+ private firms in various industries. He loves red wine and spending time with his cats.